1876.] F. A. de Eoej)storff — On the Inhahitanfs of the Nicobars. 147 



into the sea. There were still some rotten logs standing oiit of the water, 

 but these were nearly quite eaten through, and in another year I expect that 

 this dead forest will be gone. 



It was low water when we arrived, and we found the canoe of the men 

 that had gone before us, hauled up on some rocks near the innermost j)art 

 of Ganges harbour. There one man and I got out and waded along the 

 swamp towards oui* Shombongs. At last we approached a little open hut 

 where the people that had gone before us were sitting. When we came 

 up to them, they said that the two Shombongs had just before run into the 

 jungle and that they were quite close by. The Nicobarese had insisted 

 on my wearing a red cloth over my coat, so as not to frighten them, but 

 yet they had fled. My disappointment was very great, and my guide ad- 

 vanced into the jungle and called out to them. He turned to all sides 

 caUing and after a little while we heard a reply. A long parley followed 

 and I sent one man more to try and jDersuade them to come in. After a 

 little while my guide called out to me to come quickly and to bring the 

 presents I had brought. I ran of£ as qtiickly as I could, with my presents 

 in my hands, and very soon I met my man. He was on the other side 

 of a little running stream and came over, but appeared very much fright- 

 ened, so my guide gently led him off to his hut and very soon I joined 

 them. He stood leaning against a tree and was watching every move- 

 ment of mine, just Hke a Avild beast, evidently afraid that I should throw 

 myself upon him. My guide warned me to sit down and not to trouble him 

 as he was afraid. So I sat down and began to write. He was a Mongolian, 

 the small obKque eyes were quite a distinct featixre in his face. His nose 

 was bent, but flat below. His mouth was not so prominent as is f ou.nd with 

 the coast people. His teeth were small and well-fomied, but black. He was 

 5' 8i" high. Has hair and eyes were black. The hair was hanging wildly 

 down his face, cut off just above the ej^es, (the coast people have brown eyes). 

 His forehead was high and well-formed, his ears not very big but bored. His 

 legs were short and his feet and hands small. He was a good deal fau'er 

 than the three coast people present. He wore a string rovmd his waist but 

 badly tied, evidently put on for the occasion. After a Httle while we got 

 into a conversation. He told me that his people did not eat either monkeys 

 or the python, but lived on the produce of their gardens. That they had 

 large plots under yams and G-unya. That they would also eat birds when 

 they covild get them. That they snared ducks and pigeons. That they did 

 not use bow and arrows, but spears. That the men went naked but that 

 their women had little skirts of the cettis-bark. I enquired what sort of 

 cooking pots they had, and he declared that they had none, but boiled their 

 food in vessels made of the areca-bark, and as a proof he showed me his last 

 meal. He hud been eating a couple of pudtly bii'ds {Demiegrctta sacra). 



